HERMÈS TURNS VENTURE BEYOND INTO A COLLECTION OF OBJECTS FOR THE RESTLESS IMAGINATION
Hermès translates its 2026 “Venture beyond” theme into playful Fall/Winter objects — from a miniature submarine charm to leather-rich games and accessories — proving that utility can still carry wit.
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Hermès has always understood that an object can be serious without being severe. Saddles, scarves, bags, jewellery, games and furniture occupy different worlds of function, yet the house’s best pieces share the same proposition: make something beautifully, then allow imagination to enter through the details. Its 2026 theme, “Venture beyond”, gives that instinct an unusually literal stage.
For Fall/Winter 2026, Robb Report Singapore highlights a group of objects that treat daily life as a departure point rather than a constraint. Among them is a small submarine-shaped bag accessory in lambskin and Mysore goatskin, referencing Hélice cufflinks from the 1960s; a cap combining pea-coat cloth with Swift calfskin; and a table-tennis table whose net and drawers are wrapped in Swift calfskin. The message is not that everything needs to become precious. It is that familiar things can be made strange, charming and desirable again through craft.
THE HOUSE THEME AS CREATIVE PERMISSION
Hermès describes “Venture beyond” as a call towards the unknown — the moment when a smell, a texture, an image or an object interrupts routine and invites curiosity. Artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas frames that impulse as fundamental to the house’s creativity. It is an expansive theme because it does not prescribe a single look; instead, it gives the sixteen métiers permission to interpret movement, discovery and otherness in their own materials.
That approach is particularly effective in the home and object categories, where function can easily become predictable. The 2026 pieces escape that problem through storytelling. A table-tennis set can be a game, an interior object and a demonstration of leather workmanship at once. A miniature submarine can be playful, but it can also connect to a deeper archive of house design.
A SUBMARINE, A GLOBE AND THE PLEASURE OF GOING DEEPER
The underwater idea also appears elsewhere in Hermès’ current universe. The Nereus 24 submarine relief globe maps ocean trenches, ridges and peaks across printed and sheathed Swift calfskin, with marine topography hand-drawn by designer Nigel Peake. Its name refers to the deep-sea vehicle associated with exploration of the Mariana Trench. It is an extravagant object, certainly, but also a neat expression of the annual theme: the decorative surface becomes an invitation to think about what lies beneath it.
The connection between archive and novelty is equally important. Hermès rarely treats heritage as a reason to freeze an idea in place. A reference to 1960s cufflinks can reappear as a contemporary charm; equestrian roots can lead to objects that have nothing to do with horses; leather expertise can migrate from bags into furniture and games. The house remains recognisable because the continuity sits in the standards of making, not in repetition.
LUXURY WITH A SENSE OF PLAY
There is an increasingly useful distinction between luxury that asks to be admired and luxury that asks to be used. Hermès is at its most persuasive when the two are inseparable. A carefully made cap should still be worn. A table-tennis table should still invite a game. A charm should make someone smile before it makes them think about craft history.
“Venture beyond” works because it encourages precisely that kind of movement. The collection turns ordinary categories into small acts of escape, proving that curiosity does not need a boarding pass. Sometimes it begins with the object already in front of you — made well enough, and imagined freely enough, to make the familiar feel new.